FRIDAY, March 29, 2024
nationthailand

Born in the USA ... and over here

Born in the USA ... and over here

Osha restaurants are spreading their American twist on Thai across

IT WAS something of a “homecoming” when the San Francisco-based Osha chain of Thai-food restaurants finally opened its first outlet in Thailand in late 2014, a full seven years after it began treating Americans to traditional Thai dishes cooked Western style with modern flourishes.
In April this year Bangkok Royal Thai Cuisine, the firm behind the Bangkok chain, opened a sister branch to the Wireless Road location, this time an Osha Cafe in Warehouse 10 at Asiatique the Riverfront.
Again it’s Purida Theeraphong – the first female challenger on the Thai edition of TV cooking show “Iron Chef” – bringing to the kitchen more of the same superb creativity that conceived the Floral set menu of dishes enhanced with edible flowers that’s available on Wireless Road.
The 100-seat cafe on the river fills 300 square metres with a spacious dining area, alluring counter bar and fully equipped Cooking Chronicle studio, where you can take lessons in preparing contemporary meals influenced by classical royal cuisine.
The place wears its industrial loft with a sort of casual elegance, black steel above a golden wooden floor amid white walls decorated |with chada, the Siamese theatrical headdresses. 
“Osha is famous in San Francisco and the owners believed the brand had potential in Thailand,” says business development manager Maythavee In-Odd. 
“We have three branches here now, each with a different approach. On Wireless Road it’s fine dining, at Asiatique it’s more casual, with easy-to-eat dishes, and in Phuket there’s a choice among Thai, Peranakan and Southern cuisine.”
Chef Purida, who has almost two decades’ experience in five-star hotels including the Radisson Phuket and Bangkok’s Hotel Muse and Berkeley Hotel Pratunam, is offering diners at the Osha Cafe favourite Thai selections from each of the country’s four regions. 
“I wanted to give tourists a chance to sample all the different kinds of Thai food,” she says. “We use modern cooking techniques that improve the quality of the food and adapt foreign and local ingredients to create new dining experiences. What makes it ‘modern’ is that the food is as beautiful as it is edible. And everything here is really affordable.” 
A popular starter is the crisply deep-fried Osha Crab Toffy (Bt280), which is part crab roll and part shrimp cake. Blue crab goes swimming with shrimp in a tofu sheet, splashed with Sri Racha chilli sauce. 
Spicy and colourful, Sea Scallop Herb Salad (Bt290) mingles a Hokkaido scallop, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, shallots, lemon, chillies and garlic.
An even healthier option is Nam Prik Kai Kem (Bt220), super-smooth and creamy in texture, with the shrimp cooked with lemon juice and blended with chilli, garlic and salted egg and served with cabbage rolls containing cowpeas, carrots and mushrooms. 
Among the recommended main dishes are the sweet-and-sour Fried Prawns with Caramelised Tamarind Sauce (Bt490) and the spicy Red Curry Crab with Betel Leaf (Bt320). The latter has the crabmeat subsumed in full-flavoured Southern-style turmeric red curry and comes with extra-thin rice noodles. 
For a quick but fulfilling meal, the Osha Noodles (Bt190) are quite tantalising – flat rice noodles fried in red curry paste, topped with grilled dory fish and presented on a bed of puffy dry-fried fish. The range of textures is amazing. 
Beverages that can’t be beat include the Oshar Refresher, which is a blend of mixed-berry puree, blackcurrant syrup, mint leaves and ginger ale, and Spicy Mango, mixing passion fruit and fiery chilli. A glass of either costs Bt160.
  

ROLLING ON THE RIVER
>> Osha Cafe is in Warehouse 10 at Asiatique the Riverfront and open daily from 5pm to midnight. 
>> Find out more at www.OshaBangkok.com.
 

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